Sadly, all three retraced their steps back to camp, each alone with their thoughts, the gold medallion completely forgotten.

Although deep down Rosie knew that it would have been impossible, she had hoped, that somehow they would have managed to re-float their boat and somehow sail her back to Montego Bay. Their last very slim chance of getting off the island had gone. Their only hope now, was if some passing ship or aircraft saw their distress flares and came close enough to see their signal fire.

Next day was a new day and as ever optimistic youngsters they quickly forgot about the Sea Sprite and Rosie's mind turned to her medallion. She did her daily chores as quickly as possible and without a word to anyone she set off for the beach. Very carefully she searched behind the waterfall for a hidden cave. Bedraggled and wet through, Rosie sat on the beach, her legs hunched up under her chin and stared at the cliffs. She was so sure that there would be a cave full of treasure. She found no cave.

Through misty eyes she tried to search the bottom of the cliff for some sign that in days long gone, pirates had been here and stashed their treasure in a cave. Sadly, her tearful gaze fell on the outcrop of rocks that formed her own diving platform. There, just at the bottom of the cliff on top of the volcanic outcrop, was a new pile of rocks.

Rosie rubbed the tears from her eyes and stared at her find. Sure enough there was a large pile of rocks that hadn't been there the day before. Excitedly, she got up and ran to the rock pile. Her gaze stretched upwards but being so close to the cliff she couldn't see very far.

"I know," thought Rosie. "I'll swim in the lagoon and from there I will be able to see all the way to the top."

Rosie ran along the diving platform and tumbled headlong into the lagoon. Surfacing she turned towards shore. At first she couldn't see very clearly but as the water dripped from her face she saw what looked like a fissure in the cliff face with a small ledge underneath. Floating on her back, Rosie gazed upwards at the cliff, now convinced that she had found her cave. Urgency and excitement lent her speed as she cleaved through the water, ran across the beach and clambered up the path.

Her heart beating madly, she walked along the cliff top until she was sure that she was over her "cave."

Rosie lay down and peered over the edge. Some twenty feet below and a bit to her right, Rosie saw the ledge and yes! there did seem to be a sort of hole in the cliff face. Almost bursting with excitement, she rushed back to camp.

"Hey! Brian! Nigel! I've found it, I've found it, I've found the cave," shouted a breathless girl. "Come on, get a rope so I can climb down to see."

"Hang on, what have you found?" retorted Brian. "Calm down and tell me."

Full of excitement and so sure that she had found the pirates cave, Rosie explained how she came to spot it. "It must have been yesterday's storm that dislodged the rocks."

Brian listened carefully as Rosie went on, "Don't you see, the pirates must have put the rocks in the mouth of the cave so that no one would see it and the storm loosened them and they came crashing down."

"You know Rosie, you may well be right about the storm and the rocks, but pirate's treasure; I don't think so."

"It's got to be a treasure cave. There's always been pirates in the Caribbean, robbing ships and sea ports and they had to put their treasure somewhere, so why not here?" argued the girl. "There was Bluebeard and Blackbeard and dozens of others. What about Captain Morgan?"

"Well you certainly seem to know your history young lady," congratulated Brian. "Alright, let's go and look and see if we can figure out a way to get down to your cave. First we shall have to find Nigel, he's gone to pick some bananas." With that Brian got up and left the camp.

Rosie sat impatiently waiting for the two fellows to come back. "Oh! hurry up," she thought, getting more and more excited. Suddenly she realised that if it was a cave, it had been there for maybe hundreds and even thousands of years and it wasn't going to disappear just like that. Calmed by her thought, Rosie went about the camp collecting ropes and things, because someone had to be lowered down to her cave.

After what seemed like ages Nigel and his dad came back, loaded with green bananas and placed them in their store to ripen.

"I've got some rope," exclaimed Rosie to Brian, "hope it's long enough."

"Alright Rosie, let's go and find your cave."

Soon they were all lying down on the cliff top looking down.

"Well, where is it?" questioned Nigel.

"Over there, to the left. Can you see that ledge?" replied the excited girl, pointing downwards.

"I see it," said Brian. "Now we need a tree."

Brian tied the rope to a nearby tree and took a bight around another.

"Come here Rosie." ordered Brian and tied the rope firmly around her waist. "You're the lightest, so it will have to be you who's to be lowered."

In a daze Rosie nodded agreement and sat on the edge of the cliff right above the ledge. Nigel lay beside her and gazed downwards.

"Are you ready?"

Rosie looked down and suddenly it didn't seem like such a good idea that it was she who was to be lowered. With her heart beating faster and faster Rosie eased herself over the cliff top, the rope taught behind her. Brian paid out the rope and as it slid around the tree, Rosie was slowly lowered towards the ledge. Facing the cliff, she edged her way down. A cry of pain escaped her clenched teeth as she scrapped her knee on a rock.

"You a'right?" queried a voice from above.

"Yes, just skinned my knee. Keep going, I'm nearly there."

Her feet touched the ledge, no more than a mere twelve inches wide.

"STOP!" shouted Rosie as she struggled to keep her balance. "I'm there."

Just a yard to her right was an opening and it looked just wide enough for her to get through. Tentatively, Rosie edged towards her goal until at last she thrust an arm into the opening and clung to a rock.

"I've got there!" shouted Rosie, "and it's big enough for me to get in."

"Don't untie the rope," came back the response, "and be careful."

Rosie clawed her way through the opening and entered a small cave. It was dark and she couldn't see very much. Slowly her eyes became accustomed to the gloom and she could just make out some bits of wood and in the distance she thought that she could see a faint light. A bit disappointed, Rosie retreated to the ledge and shouted. "Pull me up!"

"Right Nigel," instructed Brian, "you take this rope and keep it from going slack, while I pull Rosie up."

Rosie was quickly hauled to the top and blooded and breathless she explained what she had seen.

"Never mind Rosie," consoled Nigel's dad, "tomorrow we'll let you down again and this time you can take a torch. I know how to make one and it should last for at least an hour. But now let's look at that knee. Hmm! it's only a graze and it looks fairly clean. Still I'll sort it out when we get back to camp."

For Rosie, the short walk back to camp went unnoticed as she recounted to her companions as much as she could about the cave.

"Are you sure that you saw a light in there?" asked Nigel.

"Well I think so, I'm not too sure," replied the limping girl. "Why? Is it important?"

"Well, yes it could be," interjected Brian. "If you really did see a light it must be coming from somewhere and that means that there must be another way into the cave from up here."

"I wonder where?" queried Rosie.

That evening's talk around the camp fire was full of the cave and "another entrance" and they all tried to guess where it could be.

"It's difficult to say," said Brian, "there's so many places. One thing's for sure though," he went on "it can't be far from the cliff top otherwise you wouldn't have seen a light."

Only Brian slept well that night as both Rosie and Nigel quietly talked for hour after hour until sleep finally overtook them both.

Next morning Brian insisted that they still did all their normal chores as usual. After all, no one was going to run away with the cave.

"Anyway," explained Brian, "I've still got to make a couple of torches. It's no good going again without them."

Not entirely convinced, the youngsters set about their tasks with a fervour reserved only for getting ready for a party. After dinner, Brian declared them ready to go.

Once in the cave, the two torches were lowered down to Rosie and she stuck one between two rocks near the mouth. With the other torch in her hand she searched the cave in the flickering light.

As caves go it wasn't very big. It was sort of oblongish and apart from a few pieces of wood and an old rag, it was empty. At the far end some twenty or thirty feet away there seemed to be two passages leading into darkness. The passageway to the left showed a faint glow of light. A few feet above her head, small stalactites threatened to scalp her as she gingerly moved around.

The passageway to the right went downwards and quickly opened out into a massive cave. Rosie's torch flickered and lit up only a small portion. To her it seemed like the cave went on for ever. Not sure if she should go on, Rosie decided to try the other passageway and following the rope trailing behind her, she re-traced her steps.

The other passageway sloped gently upwards and as she walked along it, the roof got lower and lower until eventually she had to stoop very low.

"Shall I go on?" thought Rosie. "What if I get stuck or I can't turn round?"

By then she had gone as far as the rope would let her and she would either have to go back or untie the rope. Rosie crouched there in the gloom, her torch almost out. Undecided she lay there wondering what to do.

"It isn't very far back to the mouth of the cave and daylight and I don't really need the rope, at least not until it was time to be pulled back up the cliff," she said out loud.

Her voice echoed back at her from the gloom and made her jump and she banged her head on the roof. "That's it," she resolved. "No stupid cave is going to get the better of me."

Rosie wedged her flickering torch between two rocks and untied the rope. Taking care not to bang her grazed knee, she crawled forward. Soon she was in total darkness, except it wasn't quite total. It was like a very dark night when there was no moon or stars. She could sort of see vague shapes in front of her and she could definitely see a light ahead. Encouraged the young girl crawled forward and sensed rather than saw that the roof was higher than before. Cautiously she stood up and felt with her hands above her head. The roof was there just a few inches above her head.

Progressing with excitement, Rosie rounded a corner and there in front of her were dozens of chinks of light coming through a pile of rocks. She stared at the light and rocks and reached forward to touch them. Rosie pushed and shoved at the rocks but in spite of all her efforts they remained firmly in place. Frustrated and bitterly disappointed at not being able to move the rocks, Rosie sat down. Instinctively, she knew that just the other side of that pile of rocks was the open air.

"But just where would it be? How would I ever find it on the surface? There were loads of piles of rocks all over the place. Which one was this pile?" she questioned. "Somehow I have to mark this pile, but how?" thought Rosie. Out loud she said, "I know, I'll get one of those sticks from the other cave and push it through the gap. I'll tie my hanky to it so that I will be able to see it easily."

It was a long and torturous journey back to the cave, because both torches had long since gone out. By then her eyes had really got accustomed to the dark and the cave wasn't quite as dark as it had seemed at first. Somehow Rosie managed to find a piece of wood and after another long crawl along the tunnel she finally pushed the stick through a gap in the rocks.

Once she was back inside the cave, the excited young girl re- tied the rope around her waist and eased herself out onto the ledge.

"O.K. pull me up," she shouted.

Once on the cliff top, Rosie explained to Brain and Nigel where she had been and what she had done. She had been gone such a long while that they were both beginning to get worried, especially as Brian had tried pulling on the rope and found that it was slack.

"Well it's too late to go searching the island now," reasoned Brian. "It'll be dark soon but first thing tomorrow morning we'll organise a search. Just this once we'll forget the chores and anyway I don't think I could keep you two from starting the search on your own. Come on let's get something to eat."